Competency Profile: the successful volunteer

Competency Profile: the successful volunteer

The Muses Foundation offers a preparation training for volunteers. We aim to prepare the volunteers to make them more successful, so they can contribute better at your project. As a local project you see many volunteers. We would very much like to hear from you what, in your opinion, is important to make a volunteer successful. What do you expect from them? What are important competencies? Competencies are abilities or attributes, described in terms of behavior, key to effective performance. In this questionnaire you find a couple of questions about competencies. Please rate what you find important for your project! We use the results to establish a competency profile for the ideal successful volunteer and use this to improve our preparation training.

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Country*

What type of project do you work for?*

How many years have you worked with volunteers?*

< 1 year

1-3 years

3-5 years

> 5 years

How important is it that volunteers are aware of cultural differences between their own culture and the country they are visiting?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers can imagine themselves in someone else’s culture?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers support local employees, instead of taking over their work?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers come up with their own ideas?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers ask questions?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers are strong and confident?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers are able to work well together (with local employees and other volunteers for example)?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers can contribute to work relations for the project?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that the volunteers know how to handle difficult situations?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers can work independently / on their own?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that the volunteers show they are reliable?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that the volunteers are open and willing to learn?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers completely merge into the new culture?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers have knowledge about what is safe and what is not in the country they are visiting?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers are able to empathize with others?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

How important is it that volunteers are willing to get socially involved with people from a different culture?*

1. Not important

2. Somewhat important

3. Important

4. Very important

5. Most important

Are there any other important competencies or qualities that we haven’t mentioned yet? If so, which ones would you like to add (and why are they important)?

If you would have to choose the MOST important competency/quality of the ideal volunteer, what would it be?

In your experience is their some type of behavior that is not desired in volunteering? For example behaviour that would make a volunteer LESS successful for the project, or could create a LESS successful experience for the volunteer themselves?

Optional: would you like to stay involved and receive updates about our research and findings, leave your e-mail here